I recently went through John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress that was published in 1678. I listened to the audio version and it was a great experience. The whole thing is written as an allegory where “Christian” is on his way to the “Celestial City.” He, his wife and children encounter tons of adversity. They come up against “Giant Despair” that lives in “Doubting Castle.” “Christian” is barraged with discouragement through characters like “worldly wise man,” “pliable” and “obstinate.” It would take way too much time to try to review the whole book but I thought it was powerful enough to want to share some insights I gleaned from it.

1. I don’t take my spiritual journey seriously enough.

The way that Bunyan depicted the spiritual journey of Christian as he was on his way to the Celestial City was masterful. Bunyan shows us that there is a lot of opposition in the Christian life (no pun intended) that comes in a myriad of shapes and sizes. We have to take this life seriously. We have to take God seriously. Things are not all “chill” and “easygoing.” We want to believe that life is not a big deal but that’s just not the case. If we allow ourselves to take things too lightly, we will not experience the fullness of the life we were called to live.

2. We have to fight.

Regardless of how much we want to believe that the world is a cruise ship and we just need to have a good time, there are many battles in front of us. One of the continual challenges of Christian as he made his way through the treacherous terrain was figuring out which battles he needed to fight. Not every person in our path is trying to seek out and live in the truth. We cannot simply coast with the ebb and flow of the environment around us. We must walk circumspectly understanding that nobody just drifts in the right direction. Living a truly successful life means consistent, daily decisions to follow God as we fight through various trials.

3. This world is not all there is.

There is a God and his throne is in another place. We can’t see eternity so it’s hard to live with it in mind but it’s coming. We have been given the choice to experience eternity with God or eternity without him because of what he did on the cross through his Son Jesus Christ. We will spend eternity somewhere and how tragic it would be if we didn’t have this on the forefront of our minds as we passed through the temporary home that is this life. As the character Maximus says in the famous movie Gladiator, “What we do in life echoes in eternity.” What kind of echo are you creating?

I could write a much longer response to A Pilgrim’s Process but this is where I’ll stop. Bunyan helps his readers to understand that this life is not all there is. There is more to life than what meets the eye and we would be wise to open the eyes of our hearts. Ask questions. Don’t be content with surface answers. I encourage you to read Bunyan’s book and learn from Christian’s journey. The perspective that is offered there will prove to be valuable as we face the challenges in our brief stay on this earth.